I choose (b) concept maps

Last night, while I was whining like a baby posting about my difficulties writing multiple-choice questions, I had the germ of an idea that made me feel a bit better.  It involves concept maps, which are awesomeness (Fig. 1).  We are planning to include a concept mapping activity toward the end of the natural selection module. A concept map is made up of nodes that represent concepts, and links that represent the relationships between them.   Creating concept maps helps students structure their knowledge because it asks them to make decisions about the connections between concepts.  They are inherently hard to assess, because many different maps can be correctly constructed from the same terms, but they are apparently a good tool for discussion of the 'big picture' and we are keen to give them a go.  My nascent idea is that we can also broaden our narrow array of multiple-choice questions by including a couple based around concept maps.  I can imagine two sorts:

1) Choose the most accurate concept map from five (this is lower level, space-consuming, also time-consuming to read, but still possible).

2) Choose from five possible linking phrases to go between nodes in an 'unlinked' concept map (slightly higher level, slightly less space consuming)

Once we have tried this idea out, I'll post something on whether it worked out.

PS If you have ever wanted to make a concept map without exposing your horrible hand-tremor and blotchy penmanship, try the programme Cmap, which is incredibly straight-forward and also free.

 

Figure 1. Judge me only on artistic merit